White-Jacket (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Herman Melville
- First Published: 1850
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Adventure
- Time of Work: The 1840’s
- Setting: A vessel of the U.S. Navy
- Genres: Long fiction, Adventure, Sea story
- Subjects: Voyages, Nineteenth century, Alienation, Death or dying, Ships, Sailing or sailors, Amputation, amputees, or prosthetics, Sea or seafaring life, Navies, Clothing or dress
- Locales: Oceans
Characters Discussed
White-Jacket, a common seaman aboard the United States frigate Neversink on a voyage from the Pacific around Cape Horn to the eastern seaboard. White-Jacket gets his name aboard the ship when he sews for himself a canvas jacket for protection against the cold of the Cape. He is a sensitive young man and is greatly disturbed by practices common aboard U.S. naval vessels of the nineteenth century; floggings, tyrannical officers, and issuance of liquor to crewmen all draw his fire. White-Jacket’s story ends when he falls overboard off the Virginia...
[The entire page is 531 words long]
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